As the Summer of Muskrat nears, I’ve been rethinking my approach to running. With the opportunity to change things up for the summer, I’ve decided to try something I’ve never done.

I’ve always been interested in the 10-day training cycle. The theory is that the body isn’t really set up for the seven-day cycle. It’s not long enough of a recovery for long runs but is used simply because the calendar says so. The 10-day cycle is a more natural way for your body to cope with long runs and eventually getting stronger. So the theory goes.

I figure what the heck. It’s summer. Why not.

With no particular mileage or key workouts in mind, my original SoM schedule looked like this:
m — run
t — run
w — run
th — run
fri — run
sat — run
sun — run *
repeat

The revised schedule is a radical departure:
day 1 — run
day 2 — run
day 3 — run
day 4 — run
day 5 — run
day 6 — run
day 7 — run
day 8 — run
day 9 — run
day 10 — run
repeat

You scoff at the outlandishness. But this is science, dammit. Somebody has to try it. Besides, 10 sets of 10 days work better in a 100-day cycle. Although I’m not sure cycles are allowed in the SoM.

Do I have reservations? Not really. I’m hoping I don’t need a reservation but I’ll likely end up sleeping in the car.

Mostly I’m going to run around in circles on a dirt track for three months and see what happens. Ten days at a time.